[ Answers · AI search ]

AEO vs SEO: what's the difference?

By Ben Tabas, Intrica Research · Updated

Answer

AEO, or answer engine optimization, shapes a page so ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Google's featured snippets can lift it as the direct answer to a question. SEO is the wider job of getting pages crawled, indexed and ranked. Google's featured snippets guide, last updated Dec. 10, 2025, says you can't mark a page as a featured snippet, so AEO works through how the page is written.

Why answers matter more than they used to

Pew Research Center tracked 900 US adults' Google searches in March 2025 and published the results on July 22, 2025. 18% of searches produced an AI summary.

With an AI summary on the page, users clicked a regular result on 8% of visits. Without one, they clicked on 15%. They clicked a link inside the summary on 1% of visits.

AEO is the work of becoming the source that the summary quotes.

How AEO and SEO differ

  • The unit. SEO ranks a whole page. AEO competes at the level of a passage that answers one question.
  • The win. SEO wins a position and a click. AEO wins the quote, the citation or the brand named in the reply.
  • The format. AEO pages lead with a short answer, then the detail. SEO pages can rank with the answer further down.
  • The scope. AEO covers featured snippets and People Also Ask boxes in Google, plus AI engines that write a full reply.

What makes a page quotable

  1. Answer the question in the first two sentences, so they read correctly if an engine quotes only them.
  2. Keep one question per page and put it in the heading.
  3. Give each figure its source and date in the same sentence.
  4. Make sure the page is indexed and eligible for a snippet. Google's AI features guide, last updated Dec. 10, 2025, sets that as the bar for appearing as a link in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
  5. Let answer engines crawl it. Perplexity's crawler page, checked Oct. 28, 2026, says PerplexityBot is designed to surface and link websites in Perplexity's search results.

Each engine picks different sources

Intrica asked four AI engines if 13 crypto exchanges are safe, Aug. 11 to 21, 2026. 52.1% of ChatGPT's sources were the exchange's own site, against 8.2% to 10.2% on Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.

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Sources

  1. Featured snippets and your website · Google Search Central, Dec. 10, 2025Supports: Featured snippets are chosen by Google's systems; a site can't mark a page as one.
  2. AI features and your website · Google Search Central, Dec. 10, 2025Supports: Pages must be indexed and snippet eligible to appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
  3. Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results · Pew Research Center, July 22, 2025Supports: Share of searches with an AI summary and click rates with and without one, March 2025.
  4. Perplexity Crawlers · Perplexity, Oct. 28, 2026Supports: Checked Oct. 28, 2026: PerplexityBot surfaces and links websites in Perplexity search results.

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